A happier and calmer SS is always a good thing.

We had a very good evening yesterday. P and I talked during lunch and knew that we had to get back into a routine, and to refocus on SS, on us. When SS woke up from her nap we had cuddle time, and we talked about what things she might want to do this weekend.

I could tell that SS was anxious about spending time with her Baba, because she insisted on going outside to wait for him, even though it was cooler than usual. She kept pushing me out into the driveway and asking me to go and get Baba.

To distract her, I asked her to help me with dinner. It still blows me away how she has the rice cooker down. As soon as I tell her we are making rice, she goes to the pantry to get the rice, then over to the spice cupboard, and gets out the salt. She then asked for her big step stool, not to be confused her her two little step stools.

As I was dicing chicken for yummy curry, SS was unusually quiet and not getting into everything. She leaned her head on my shoulder and said "I am happy." I asked her why and she responded, "you are cutting chicken." Translation: "You do not have a phone glued to your ear. I am standing next to you helping you cook, the way it should be. I like having your full attention." Either that or she has a dicing fetish.

A while later SS spotted a fly that got in when we carelessly left the front door open. SS hates insects and yelled, "A bug, Mama, it's a buuuuuuuuuuuuuuug." I told her it was a fly and that I would kill it once I was done dicing chicken. SS laughed, pumped her fist up and in the air and exclaimed, "Kill bug, YEAH!" I don't think exposing SS to school, normal children and adults, and mandated reporters is such a good idea.

I managed to swat the fly and retrieved it with a paper towel to toss in the trash. SS was carefully monitoring every move. She shrieked as I was about to toss it in the trashcan, "Wait Mama, I want to see." I opened the paper against my best judgment, SS did her maniacal laugh and said, "Yeah, kill bug." Talk about a moment worthy of a Rockwell painting.

P did something he had not done in a week, catch a rerun of the previous night Daily Show without interruption. He usually handles bedtime, but I took over to give him a well deserved break. By the time I came downstairs to get him to tuck SS in he was dead to the world. I convinced SS to forgo the tucking in for one night because her Baba was exhausted. She surprisingly went down without protesting.

Our happier SS was evident this morning. As P was about to enter his building SS called out "Bye Baba. You are sick, you need to rest." How adorable is that? We are looking to sleeping in tomorrow. Since we have lousy rigid internal clocks that translates into staying in bed, giving SS lots of cuddles and tickles. Once we drag our lazy selves out of bed, we are going to treat our daughter to outside time. We are looking forward to our weekend.


A much happier SS this morning, except for her attitude at the beginning of the video.

I am grateful that P can take the time to indulge SS in some loving before school. Even if she is in a lousy mood he manages to have her smiling by the time we leave.

The fish get her first good morning greeting.

I dumped SS's phone last night. The girl had 412 pictures in there. Granted, I do not remember when I dumped her phone last, but 412? I think that it is a good idea to provide toddlers with cameras. It gives you an inkling about how they view the world, what they find interesting. It won't give you hope that your child will win a Nobel prize in applied physics, or for finding the cure for cancer, that is for sure. Thankfully for SS her parents are on the low achieving, low intellect side. Another look through SS's prism: